With transition towards fifth generation (5G), mobile cellular networks are evolving into ubiquitous systems for data acquisition and information processing suitable for monitoring and control of large-scale systems. At the forefront of this evolution is the transformation of radio access network (RAN) to support massive-scale machine-type communications (MTC) [1]} and transformation of core network (CN) to support large-scale centralized or distributed information processing through Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) and Fog-RAN (F-RAN) architecture [2]}, [3]}. MTC services in 5G will offer both massive-scale data acquisition from various machine-type devices through massive MTC (mMTC) service, but also, provide ultra reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC) service for mission-critical applications [4]}. Complemented with ultra-dense RAN deployment and flexible and virtualized signal processing architecture, novel 5G network services that are particularly suitable for large-scale system monitoring and control of various smart infrastructures are emerging [5]}.
